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Kyle Davis wins NSF CAREER Award for pioneering research on climate-resilient food systems
University of Delaware assistant professor Kyle Davis has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award—one of the most competitive and prestigious honors for early-career faculty—for his work advancing the climate resilience of global food systems. Davis, who holds joint appointments in the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, leads cutting-edge research at the intersection of agriculture, sustainability and global environmental change. His focus? Making food production more efficient, climate-smart and socially equitable—especially in regions grappling with limited water resources. With a growing global population and increasing pressure on land and water, Davis’s research is helping to answer one of the most critical questions of our time: How can we feed the world without destroying the planet? His lab’s work recently led to the development of MIRCA-OS, a groundbreaking open-source dataset that offers high-resolution global data on irrigated and rain-fed croplands across 23 crop types. The tool, co-created with UD doctoral student Endalkachew Kebede and published in Nature Scientific Data, allows researchers, farmers and policymakers to assess how crop choices, rainfall and irrigation interact with water systems and food security. Some of the thirstiest crops are grown in the most water-stressed areas Davis said. Shifting crop mixes to crops that require less water but still ensure farmer profits is a promising way to reduce the amount of water needed to irrigate crops and to avoid conditions of water scarcity. Davis’s research spans continents, with active projects in the United States, India, China and Nigeria, where his team is exploring solutions to water scarcity, crop nutrition and agricultural sustainability. His work has appeared in Earth.com, Phys.org and major scientific journals. In 2023, he was recognized with the American Geophysical Union’s Global Environmental Change Early Career Award. In addition to research, Davis is a dedicated mentor, guiding graduate students from around the world. “So much of my research is the result of their passion, abilities, drive and creativity,” Davis said. Davis is available for interviews on topics including sustainable agriculture, water use, climate adaptation, food systems and the power of data science in global development. He can be contacted by clicking the "View Profile" button.
Meet “The Beast”: The Rare Flower That Smells Like Death and Draws Crowds
When a corpse flower, one of the world’s rarest and most extraordinary blooming plants, bursts into bloom, it’s more than a quirky spectacle. It’s a moment that invites deeper stories about plant biology, conservation, biodiversity, and the science that helps preserve rare species. Last season, Wendy Overbeck Dunham, Senior Horticulture Manager at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, was interviewed by reporters from ABC News and ARC West Michigan (CBS News) covering this rare event. Wendy Overbeck Dunham is the Director of Horticulture at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She leads the horticulture team that oversees the care and presentation of the organization’s living collections - ranging from tropical conservatories and outdoor gardens to seasonal displays - connecting guests to art, design, and the natural environment. View her profile Why This Bloom Is So Rare and Newsworthy Corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum) are famous for their massive size, unpredictable bloom cycles, and powerful odor that mimics rotting flesh , an evolutionary strategy for attracting specific pollinators. These blooms can take many years to develop, and their spectacular emergence - open only for a short window -attracts crowds and widespread attention. Last year, as one such plant prepared to bloom at Frederik Meijer Gardens, anticipation built across West Michigan and beyond, with extended visiting hours so the public could witness, and smell, this rare phenomenon. Wendy Overbeck Dunham offered a vivid description of what made this bloom such an unforgettable experience and also showed both the humor and educational value of the moment, a reminder that science can be fun, fascinating, and even a bit funky. “No matter how you describe it, this plant, which we've nicknamed ‘The Beast,’ is definitely going to stink here in the next few days.” Wendy Overbeck Dunham leads horticultural strategy and rare plant cultivation at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. Her leadership focuses on nurturing exceptional plant specimens, interpreting botanical phenomena for the public, and providing an expert voice on topics ranging from plant biology to conservation and ecological storytelling.
Video Insights: What Boards of Directors Need to Know About Tariffs
Boards of directors globally are confronting unknown circumstances as a result of the current quickly shifting tariff and trade environment. Business risks and opportunities are magnified during such times, compelling boards to seek the right strategies in order to meet these challenges. In this video, Brian Gleason, John Peiserich, James E. Malackowski, and Mariano de Alba – experts in business turnaround, supply chain, intellectual property, and political risk – outline emerging considerations for boards of directors in light of changing tariff policies, including: • Tracking the financial impact of tariffs and effects on company supply chains • Understanding changes to regulatory requirements and whether internal policies need to be modified • Planning for short- and long-term effects on intellectual property • Adjusting communications between the board and senior management To view more of our Tariffs and Trade Series expert analysis and commentary, visit: Looking to know more or connect with John Peiserich and James E. Malackowski? Simply click on either expert's icon now to arrange an interview today. If you are looking to connect with Brian Gleason or Mariano de Alba - contact : Kristi L. Stathis, J.S. Held +1 786 833 4864 Kristi.Stathis@JSHeld.com
A path to fair minerals trade: Researcher champions global trust model
As the world races to build cleaner energy systems and powerful AI technologies, the demand for critical minerals—like lithium, cobalt, and rare earths—is soaring. But with this demand comes rising global tension over who controls these resources. University of Delaware Professor Saleem Ali, an international expert in environmental policy and chair of UD's Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, is suggesting a new way forward. In a new article published in Science, along with a United Nations policy brief, Ali and his coauthors propose the creation of a Global Minerals Trust. The article notes how the international plan would help countries work together to manage and share critical minerals fairly and sustainably—avoiding political fights, price shocks and environmental damage. “Without a shared framework, we risk deepening global inequalities, triggering unnecessary resource conflicts and undermining our ability to deliver on climate goals,” says Ali, who also leads the Critical Minerals and Inclusive Energy Transition program at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. The proposed Trust would use independent checks—similar to those used in nuclear safety—to make sure countries are meeting environmental and social standards. Each nation would keep control of its own resources but agree to prioritize sales of those minerals at market prices so that they can be used for clean energy infrastructure. The article builds on a TED Talk that Ali gave last year as part of the Rockefeller Foundation's "Big Bets" initiative. Ali is available for interviews on the topic and can be reached by clicking on his profile.
ChristianaCare has once again been recognized by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) for its exceptional complex care. The AACN has awarded the Beacon Award for Excellence to three intensive care units at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware: the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), the Surgical Critical Care Complex (SCCC), and the Transitional Surgical Unit (TSU) Beacon Awards honor critical-care nursing units that demonstrate exceptional patient care, improved patient health outcomes, a supportive work environment and opportunities for collaboration. The Beacon Award is widely considered to be the most prestigious award in critical-care nursing. “The Beacon Award shines a light on individual nursing units for their commitment to providing critically ill patients with exceptional care and evidence-based practices,” said Danielle Weber, DNP, MSM, RN-BC, NEA-BC, chief nurse executive at ChristianaCare. “These awards reflect nursing excellence and commitment to exceptional health outcomes, an outstanding work environment and superior patient experience.” AACN President Jennifer Adamski, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC, CCRN, FCCM, applauds the commitment of the caregivers at ChristianaCare for working together to meet and exceed the high standards set forth by the Beacon Award for Excellence. These dedicated healthcare professionals join other members of our exceptional community of nurses, who set the standard for optimal patient care. “The Beacon Award for Excellence recognizes caregivers in outstanding units whose consistent and systematic approach to evidence-based care optimizes patient outcomes. Units that receive this national recognition serve as role models to others on their journey to excellent patient and family care,” Adamski said. Consecutive successes Each of these units has received multiple Beacon Awards. • The MICU has been continuously recognized as a Beacon unit since 2009. It is the sixth time that the MICU—Delaware’s first Beacon Award-winning unit—has received the national award, with four silver and two gold recognitions. The unit holds the most Beacon Awards in Delaware. • The SCCC received a silver-level award for the fourth time. • The TSU received a gold-level award for the first time, after receiving two silver-level awards. “For us to be designated for such a consecutive amount of time is a testament to the ongoing, intensive work that we do and the focus on excellence that we have,” said Carol Ritter, MSN, RN, CCRN, CNML, nurse manager for the MICU. “It’s an affirmation of the care that the nurses provide and the excellence that they bring every day, using advanced protocols and the latest technology and research.” Beacon-designated units are renowned for their healthy work environments and high morale, which results in strong relationships among the nurses and outstanding patient care. “Our nurses are committed to providing exceptional care and patient outcomes,” said Amanda Latina, MSN, MBA, RN, TCRN, nurse manager of the TSU and SCCC. “They embody what it means to be a critical-care nurse.” Of the seven Beacon Award-winning patient care units currently in Delaware, all are at Christiana Hospital in Newark. These include the Neuro Critical Care Unit (silver), the Cardiovascular Stepdown Unit 4E (silver), the Cardiovascular Critical Care Complex (three-time gold winner), the Transitional Medical Unit and the 3C Intermediate Medical Unit (both silver).
Georgia Southern’s Shainaz Landge receives Regents’ Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award
For Shainaz Landge, Ph.D., pushing boundaries in the classroom and the laboratory isn’t just a professional pursuit, it’s a passion. As an associate professor of organic chemistry at Georgia Southern University, Landge has spent more than a decade inspiring students to soar beyond traditional learning by blending research, mentorship and hands-on experiences that extend far beyond textbooks. That commitment to innovation has earned Landge the Regents’ Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, an honor from the University System of Georgia (USG) that recognizes faculty who contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning through research, leadership and instructional excellence. “Receiving the Regents’ Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award is a true honor,” said Landge. “It reinforces my passion for teaching and research, inspiring me to strive for excellence every day. My goal is to cultivate an engaging, positive learning environment where students are actively involved and genuinely excited about the learning process.” Landge’s work is grounded in synthetic organic, medicinal and supramolecular chemistry. Her research focuses on developing novel synthetic methodologies with applications in medicinal chemistry and materials science, creating compounds with potential therapeutic properties and supramolecular systems with unique functionalities. “This award is a reflection of Dr. Landge’s deep passion for education and research, and her ability to inspire students to think critically and engage meaningfully with the world around them,” said Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Carl Reiber, Ph.D. “At Georgia Southern, we are dedicated to fostering an environment of discovery and innovation, and her work continues to elevate that mission, both in and out of the classroom. We are fortunate to have her as part of our academic community.” This isn’t the first time Landge’s dedication to student engagement and scientific inquiry has garnered recognition. Previously, she earned a University Award of Excellence for Student Success in 2021 and the College of Science and Mathematics Award of Excellence in Research in 2023. “This award is a testament to Dr. Landge’s exceptional contributions to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,” said Michael Huggins, Ph.D., dean of the College of Science and Mathematics. “Her innovative approach has not only deepened our understanding of effective teaching but has also led to measurable improvements in student outcomes across the College of Science and Mathematics.” In addition to her research and teaching, Landge has served as a Service-Learning Faculty Fellow (2023-2024) and is a current Research Advocate, reinforcing her commitment to bridging the gap between academic learning and real-world problem-solving. For more information about the Regents’ Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, visit : If you're interested in connecting with Shainaz Landge and learning more about her work then let us help - simply contact Georgia Southern's Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu to arrange an interview today.
UD researchers launch open-source tool to boost global food security and water sustainability
Efficient water usage in agriculture is crucial for sustaining a growing human population. A better understanding of the systems that support agriculture, farmers and farmlands allows for food production to become more efficient and prosperous. That's what makes the Monthly Irrigated and Rainfed Cropped Areas Open Source (MIRCA-OS) dataset so important. MIRCA-OS offers high-resolution data on 23 crop classes — including maize, rice and wheat — and helps researchers, students and farmers examine irrigation, rainfall and croplands and how they interact with global water systems. Co-authored by Endalkachew (Endi) Kebede, a doctoral student in University of Delaware’s Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, a recent paper focused on MIRCA-OS was published in Nature Scientific Data. Kyle Davis, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, served as a co-author on the paper and coordinated the study. “We first developed a comprehensive data library of crop-specific irrigated and rainfed harvested areas for all countries,” Kebede said. “This involved two years of gathering data from a wide range of international, national and regional sources. Through this process, we produced a tabulated crop calendar, annual harvested area grids and monthly harvested area grids for all irrigated and rainfed crops.” “The amount of effort that Endi put in to gather, process and harmonize all of this data is truly incredible,” Davis said. “His effort is a very important contribution to the scientific and development communities.” Doctoral student Endalkachew Kebede (left) and Assistant Professor Kyle Davis. (Photo credit: University of Delaware) Cropland accounts for 13% of Earth's total habitable land, and the preservation of cropland is important in feeding the growing global population. “Crop production has been a widespread human activity for a few thousand years, and it has a huge role in global food security,” Kebede said. “But it also has unintended impacts on the environment, such as overutilization of water resources, pollution through rivers or the effects on soil and the environment.” MIRCA-OS can play a crucial role in helping to better understand croplands and agriculture, allowing the global population to be successfully fed while minimizing the agricultural effects on the environment. In addition to the data included on cropland and water resources, MIRCA-OS allows researchers to view social aspects like poverty and unemployment through an agricultural lens, creating a better understanding of the interconnectivity of agriculture and social issues. MIRCA-OS is an updated version of the earlier MIRCA2000 dataset. Kebede said the MIRCA2000 was released nearly two decades ago, so renewing the data gives users more accurate and timely information. Both datasets specialized in examining irrigation and rainfall, but the MIRCA-OS added two new complexities to their data. First, MIRCA-OS is open source, meaning it is publicly available for anyone to use, download, or modify. Kebede said the added accessibility allows the technology to contribute to anyone's work, whether it be a student, a researcher or a farmer. “Anybody can use, update it, or upscale it to the special skill they’re interested in,” Kebede said. “Some might use it for research, some might use it to create policies and some might use it to practice agriculture.” To arrange an interview with Davis, visit his profile and click on the contact button.
NASA Asks Researchers to Help Define Trustworthiness in Autonomous Systems
A Florida Tech-led group of researchers was selected to help NASA solve challenges in aviation through its prestigious University Leadership Initiative (ULI) program. Over the next three years, associate professor of computer science and software engineering Siddhartha Bhattacharyya and professor of aviation human factors Meredith Carroll will work to understand the vital role of trust in autonomy. Their project, “Trustworthy Resilient Autonomous Agents for Safe City Transportation in the Evolving New Decade” (TRANSCEND), aims to establish a common framework for engineers and human operators to determine the trustworthiness of machine-learning-enabled autonomous aviation safety systems. Autonomous systems are those that can perform independent tasks without requiring human control. The autonomy of these systems is expected to be enhanced with intelligence gained from machine learning. As a result, intelligence-based software is expected to be increasingly used in airplanes and drones. It may also be utilized in airports and to manage air traffic in the future. Learning-enabled autonomous technology can also act as contingency management when used in safety applications, proactively addressing potential disruptions and unexpected aviation events. TRANSCEND was one of three projects chosen for the latest ULI awards. The others hail from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach – researching continuously updating, self-diagnostic vehicle health management to enhance the safety and reliability of Advanced Air Mobility vehicles – and University of Colorado Boulder – investigating tools for understanding and leveraging the complex communications environment of collaborative, autonomous airspace systems. Florida Tech’s team includes nine faculty members from five universities: Penn State; North Carolina A&T State University; University of Florida; Stanford University; Santa Fe College. It also involves the companies Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and ResilienX of Syracuse, New York. Carroll and Bhattacharyya will also involve students throughout the project. Human operators are an essential component of aviation technology – they monitor independent software systems and associated data and intervene when those systems fail. They may include flight crew members, air traffic controllers, maintenance personnel or safety staff monitoring overall system safety. A challenge in implementing independent software is that engineers and operators have different interpretations of what makes a system “trustworthy,” Carroll and Bhattacharyya explained. Engineers who develop autonomous software measure trustworthiness by the system’s ability to perform as designed. Human operators, however, trust and rely on systems to perform as they expect – they want to feel comfortable relying on a system to make an aeronautical decision in flight, such as how to avoid a traffic conflict or a weather event. Sometimes, that reliance won’t align with design specifications. Equally important, operators also need to trust that the software will alert them when it needs a human to take over. This may happen if the algorithm driving the software encounters a scenario it wasn’t trained for. “We are looking at how we can integrate trust from different communities – from human factors, from formal methods, from autonomy, from AI…” Bhattacharyya said. “How do we convey assumptions for trust, from design time to operation, as the intelligent systems are being deployed, so that we can trust them and know when they’re going to fail, especially those that are learning-enabled, meaning they adapt based on machine learning algorithms?” With Bhattacharyya leading the engineering side and Carroll leading the human factors side, the research group will begin bridging the trust gap by integrating theories, principles, methods, measures, visualizations, explainability and practices from different domains – this will build the TRANSCEND framework. Then, they’ll test the framework using a diverse range of tools, flight simulators and intelligent decision-making to demonstrate trustworthiness in practice. This and other data will help them develop a safety case toolkit of guidelines for development processes, recommendations and suggested safety measures for engineers to reference when designing “trustworthy,” learning-enabled autonomous systems. Ultimately, Bhattacharyya and Carroll hope their toolkit will lay the groundwork for a future learning-enabled autonomous systems certification process. “The goal is to combine all our research capabilities and pull together a unified story that outputs unified products to the industry,” Carroll said. “We want products for the industry to utilize when implementing learning-enabled autonomy for more effective safety management systems.” The researchers also plan to use this toolkit to teach future engineers about the nuances of trust in the products they develop. Once developed, they will hold outreach events, such as lectures and camps, for STEM-minded students in the community. If you're interested in connecting with Meredith Carroll or Siddhartha Bhattacharyya - simply click on the expert's profile or contact Adam Lowenstein, Director of Media Communications at Florida Institute of Technology at adam@fit.edu to arrange an interview today.
Most companies around the world have a leader, whether that title is a President, CEO, or Founder. There’s almost always someone at the very top of a corporate food chain, and from that position down, the company is structured hierarchically, with multiple levels of leadership supervising other employees. It’s a structure with which most people in the working world are familiar, and it dates back as long as one can remember. The word itself—leader—dates back to as far as the 12th Century and is derived from the Old English word “laedere,” or one who leads. But in 2001, a group of software engineers developed the Agile Workflow Methodology, a project development process that puts a priority on egalitarian teamwork and individual independence in searching for solutions. A number of businesses are trying to embrace a flatter internal structure, like the agile workflow. But is it necessarily the best way to develop business processes? That’s the question posed by researchers, including Goizueta Business School’s Özgecan Koçak, associate professor of organization and management, and fellow researchers Daniel A. Levinthal and Phanish Puranam in their recently published paper on organizational hierarchies. “Realistically, we don’t see a lot of non-hierarchical organizations,” says Koçak. “But there is actually a big push to have less hierarchy in organizations.” Part of it is due to the demotivating effects of working in authoritarian workplaces. People don’t necessarily like to have a boss. We place value in being more egalitarian, more participatory. Özgecan Koçak, Associate Professor of Organization & Management “So there is some push to try and design organizations with flatter hierarchies. That is specifically so in the context of knowledge-based work, and especially in the context of discovery and search.” Decoding Organizational Dynamics While the idea of an egalitarian workplace is attractive to many people, Koçak and her colleagues wanted to know if, or when, hierarchies were actually beneficial to the health of organizations. They developed a computational agent-based model, or simulation, to explore the relationships between structures of influence and organizational adaptation. The groups in the simulation mimicked real business team structures and consisted of two types of teams. In the first type, one agent had influence over the beliefs of rest of the team. For the second type, no one individual had any influence over the beliefs of the team. The hierarchical team vs. the flat structured team. “When you do simulations, you want to make sure that your findings are robust to those kinds of things like the scale of the group, or the how fast the agents are learning and so forth,” says Koçak. What’s innovative about this particular simulation is that all the agents are learning from their environment. They are learning through trial and error. They are trying out different alternatives and finding out their value. Özgecan Koçak Koçak is very clear that the hierarchies in the simulation are not exactly like hierarchies in a business organization. Every agent was purposefully made to be the same without any difference in wisdom or knowledge. “It’s really nothing like the kinds of hierarchies you would see in organizations where there is somebody who has a corner office, or somebody who is has a management title, or somebody’s making more than the others. In the simulation, it’s nothing to do with those distributional aspects or control, and nobody has the ability to control what others do in (the simulation). All control comes through influence of beliefs.” Speed vs. Optimal Solutions What they found in the simulation was that while both teams solved the same problems presented to them, they achieved different results at different speeds. We find that hierarchical teams don’t necessarily find the best solution, but they find the good enough solution in the shorter term. So if you are looking at the really long term, crowds do better. The crowds where individuals are all learning separately, they find the best solution in the long run, even though they are not learning from each other. Özgecan Koçak Özgecan Koçak (pronounced as ohz-gay-john ko-chuck) is associate professor of Organization & Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. For example, teams of scientists looking for cures or innovative treatments for diseases work best with a flat structure. Each individual works on their own timeline, with their own search methodologies. The team only comes together for status updates or to discuss their projects without necessarily getting influence or direction from colleagues. The long-term success of the result is more important in some cases than the speed at which they arrive to their conclusion. That won’t work for an organization that answers to a board of directors or shareholders. Such parties want to see rapid results that will quickly impact the bottom line of the company. This is why the agile methodology is not beneficial to large-scale corporations. Koçak says, “When you try to think about an entire organization, not just teams, it gets more complicated. If you have many people in an organization, you can’t have everybody just be on the same team. And then you have to worry about how to coordinate the efforts of multiple teams. That’s the big question for scaling up agile. We know that the agile methodology works pretty well at the team level. However, when firms try to scale it up applied to the entire organization, then you have more coordination problems. Özgecan Koçak “You need some way to coordinate the efforts with multiple teams.” The Catch: Compensation Makes a Difference The simulation did not take into account one of the biggest parts of a corporate hierarchical structure—incentives and reward. The teams in the simulation received no monetary compensation for their leadership or influence. That is not something that happens in real life. Koçak says, “If you built up an organization with just influence, you just say we’re not going to have any authority, and we’re not going to give anybody the right to control anybody else’s actions. If we’re not going to be rewarding anyone more than the other, there’s not going to be any marks of status, etc. We’re just going to have some people influence others more. I would guess that would automatically lead to a prestige hierarchy right away. The person with more influence, you would start respecting more.” It’s almost like we’re incapable of working in a flat society, because somebody always wants to be or naturally becomes a leader and an influencer whether they planned on it or not. Özgecan Koçak The paper concludes that both methodologies, with either hierarchical and flat organization of teams, reach their goals. They just arrive at different times with different end results. If an organization has the luxury of time and money, a flat, agile methodology organization might be the right structure for that company. However, even agile workflow needs some coordination, according to Koçak. “There are also some search tasks that require coordination. You can’t always be searching on your own independently of others. There are some situations in which search needs to be done in a coordinated fashion by more than one person in teams. That’s because many of the knowledge-based settings where we do discovery require some division of labor, some specialization by expertise.” Communication is Key The key to any successful workflow, whether it be agile or hierarchical, is coordination and communication. Looking back to the example of scientific researchers, Koçak said, “You have scientific teams working independently of one another without a common boss dictating what they do research on or how they do it. Instead, they explore and experiment on their own. They write up their results, share their results, and learn from each other, because they are in the long-term game. The goal is to find the truth, however long it takes. “But when you look closely at a scientific team where everybody’s exploring, there is still some need for coordination. A lot of that happens through communication, and a lot of times projects will have a lead. Not necessarily somebody who knows better than the others, but somebody who’s going to help with coordination.” The leaner, flatter organizational structures in businesses might be gaining popularity. This simulation done by Koçak and colleagues, however, shows that it isn’t a perfect fit for every company, Further, some form of hierarchical workflow is necessary to maintain communication and coordination. Hierarchical structures don’t always find the best solution to a problem, but it’s almost always a good solution in a timelier fashion. Looking to know more? Özgecan Koçak is associate professor of Organization & Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She is available to speak with media about this topic - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
Retro Appeal: Research Reveals the Reasons Behind Vintage Shopping in Turbulent Times
Why buy vintage? Reasons abound. It’s kinder to the environment. It’s usually cheaper. It’s back in style. But did you know it may also address a deep-seated psychological need for stability amid upheavals? Vintage consumption—that is, buying previously owned items from an earlier era—acts as a means to connect the past, present, and future. That connection across time can be reassuring, most especially in times of uncertainty. When you really want to buy a leather jacket that’s older than you are, it may be enlightening to consider the circumstances. This vintage insight reveals itself in research by Ryan Hamilton, associate professor of marketing at Goizueta Business School. In an award-winning article titled “Stitching time: Vintage consumption connects the past, present, and future,” Hamilton—along with coauthors Gulen Sarial-Abi, Kathleen Vohs, and Aulona Ulqinaku—uncovered why we may want to turn to something old when we perceive threats to our worldviews. Notably, multiple studies have shown thoughts of death to increase the appeal of items that have already stood the test of time. The Psychological Appeal of Thrifting In psychology, “meaning frameworks” are how we, as human beings, interpret and understand our lives as meaningful and valuable. Threats to our meaning frameworks—i.e., the pillars propping up our worldviews—can include thoughts of death, unsettling economic upheavals, and other existential challenges. In order to explore the effects of meaning threats on our preference for vintage, Hamilton and coauthors designed several studies. Their pilot test measured the physical health of nursing home residents. It then measured their preferences for vintage items, controlling for other variables. The results held up the researchers’ hypothesis: Vintage items—be they books, watches, bicycles, or luggage—were more strongly preferred over their modern versions by elderly participants in poorer health, presumably those most likely to have mortality on their minds. Six subsequent studies used different variables to see if the main hypothesis continued to hold up. It did, while at the same time revealing more information about the mechanisms at work. Ryan Hamilton Associate Professor of Marketing Death or Dental Pain In one study, for example, researchers prompted participants with death reminders. They had to contemplate and write about their own deaths to make sure mortality was top of mind. Researchers prompted a control group with reminders of dental pain. Both groups then answered a 12-question survey about their desire for structure (e.g., set routines and practices) at that particular moment. But there was another element in this study: contemplating wearing a watch from the 1950s. As predicted by the main hypothesis, death cues were associated with participants reporting that they desired more structure. The only exceptions was for those who imagined an old watch ticking on their wrists. Vintage consumption seemed to act as a buffer against unsettling thoughts of death for them. What is going on here? As noted above, the researchers theorize and show that vintage objects tend to connect our thoughts of the past, present, and future. These mental, intertemporal connections tend to be reassuring—“a hidden factor” in our preferences and choices, as Hamilton notes. More than Nostalgia One might think nostalgia—a sentimental longing for the past—could also be at work. Feeling nostalgic for one’s own past and social connections can buffer against meaning threats, as previous research has shown. But this paper was designed to tease out nostalgia. It focused on vintage’s connections across time regardless of one’s personal experiences. “This study allowed us to clearly show that people respond differently to something they believe to be old,” as Hamilton explains. “It’s not just something that has a retro look, which was one of my favorite aspects of this project.” Hamilton and his coauthors achieved this by having participants evaluate identical items thought to be genuinely vintage or replicas. And the results were robust. Retro replicas, which can prompt nostalgia, did not have the same psychological impact as items believed to be genuinely old. For instance, 20-year-olds who find a watch from the 1950s reassuring can’t feel nostalgic about the design personally. They can, however, feel a connection across time—and that came through in the study. Retail Therapy on the Rise? Hamilton’s research here follows his broader interest in consumer psychology, branding, and decision-making. “When we’re buying things, we may think it’s based on strict utility maximization. However, it also might be making us feel better in some way,” says Hamilton. Shopping can serve as an emotional management strategy—for better or for worse. Although it was outside the scope of this particular investigation (and all participants were over age 18), the insights gleaned here may help explain why 21st-century teenagers seem to be particularly avid “thrifters” these days. “I don’t want to overstate our findings. But it’s at least possible that the appeal of vintage for teenagers is boltstered by a sense of permanence and endurance that helps them during times of upheaval,” Hamilton says. It turns out a 30-year-old leather jacket might help its new owner feel better on many levels. So is it any wonder that vintage shopping is surging in uncertain times? Fashion magazines, such as Vogue and GQ, are following the vintage craze closely in 2024. Concern for climate change and the Earth’s finite resources may present two intertwined reasons to buy old things: those two things are environmental and psychological. If tumultuous times continue amid contentious elections, wars, and other threats, it seems safe to bet on vintage. Ryan Hamilton is associate professor of Marketing at Emory University - Goizueta Business School. If you're a journalist looking to know about this topic, simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
